Deep Quackers

Preview of Things to Come...
It's fur - fur now hehe - but feathers will fly soon...
And there sits "Feathers" right in front of the R-E-F who just might toss an orange flag on the play for intrusion of space.
Nope - no flag. Just a huge warning to a surprised Sierra Rose!
Ma - strange creature over there, but I did manage to capture this ducky duck.
Look what I found? I can get behind a duck like this!
Oh Sierra, you picked my favorite squeaky! Come chase me - maybe (yeah, sure!) you can get it back from me hehe!
What a valiant attempt!!!! At this point, just to tease (next time, ma, get the movie camera fixed so you can hear an ode to my brilliance here) and entice little Sierra Rose to madness, I rapidly shake my teeth against each other, making the duck quack incessantly and in quick succession. I swear that the ducks from our nearby Civic Center pond were making low passes to see if one of their own were crying for help.
Quackquackquack.... ad nauseam, but as long as it was still making her crazy, I kept it up.
"Wackaquackwackaquack... quackwack..."
Well the Ref finally stepped in, charging me with illegal bullying hissing: "Okay - time to close up shop - I'd like to hold onto my hearing for the duration of my lifetime - game over." (ya nutty blonds...)
Hey Sierra - next Tuesday at four?

Dreaming and Living

~If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.~ Henry David ThoreauI believe in this philosophy of life with one addendum; in order to have the desires of our hearts, we have to delight ourselves in the Lord. Our dreams should be lined up with the will of the Father.
I can have all the dreams in the world, but if I'm not doing what God wants me to do, I'll just be frustrated all the time. Believe me, I know from experience.
I still dream big, but I pray about what I want to accomplish and make sure what I want is what God has revealed in his Word. Then I can go forward with confidence that it's the right thing for me.

More Pride & Prejudice and Other Assorted Interesting Stuff

I had the pleasure of visiting Chatsworth House, the seat of the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire. We thoroughly enjoyed not only the house but the grounds as well. There were fields full of sheep and large trees, lovely gardens, and the cutest little hunting lodge. Of course one of my favorite rooms was the library. Chatsworth is famous for it. I had a jaw dropping moment when I saw a paperback copy of Georgiana by Amanda Foreman lying in front of ancient leatherbound books. The incongruity of it struck me as chuckle worthy.
Georgiana Cavendish was the 5th Duchess of Devonshire and quite a character. There's an excellent movie about her with Keira Knightley and Ralph Fiennes called Duchess. I've seen it about four times and would like to again.
The top photo is a painting of Georgiana as the Goddess Diana by an unknown artist. I believe it's on the ceiling going down a staircase in Chatsworth House. The small portrait of her at bottom is by Sir Joshua Reynolds.
You may remember in the P&P movie the long gallery at Pemberley (Chatsworth) where Elizabeth Bennett saw the bust of Mr. Darcy. After they were finished filming, they left the bust there. It looks very much like Matthew McFayden as Mr. Darcy. I couldn't quit looking at the girl behind the veil. How can cold marble be sculpted to look so warm and lifelike? Michelangelo did it. You just want to embrace his figures and sink into them. Not the David. I'm referring more to his pietas. Anyway, I digress.....
The final scene where Mr. & Mrs. Darcy are sitting beside a pool was taken here at this fountain. I believe there's a scene in the movie looking out this same window at the fountain and pool.
And one final comment on the photo of the bells; I can't remember where this was taken. It could have been Chatsworth but may have been taken at Burleigh House. Have you seen these down in the servants' hall while watching a movie or touring a house? You know what would happen. The servants, including the housekeeper and butler, have just sat down to their dinner when one of the bells rings. Every head turns in dread to see which room is requiring something. The butler sees that it's the drawing room needing attention. He sighs and says, "It's for me. Carry on with your meal."
If you click on the photo, you may be able to see the labels underneath the bells telling which
bell goes to which room.
I love touring the grand houses of Europe. I just wonder....if my ancestors had stayed in the old countries, would I now be living in a house like Chatsworth or Burleigh, or would I be a poor relation, having to accept whatever charity my rich relatives dish out? Unfortunately, I'll never know since the ancestors DID come to America leaving behind either grandeur or squalor.

It's not far

Sometimes I don't have to go far from home to stir things up and discover some worthwhile riding experiences. So it proved on the weekend. Saturday was a short, early ride into Tallebudgera Valley, with the intention of escaping the blistering heat. That failed of course, but it was still a rewarding ride. The recent rain did provide some relief in the form of an overflowing creek that had to be crossed. Hitting some cool water all of a sudden is an extremely refreshing experience.


I did manage one detour for the sake of a little extra climbing. The name "Petsch Creek Road" should inspire visions of a ride through a forest along a creek bed. The reality is an 18% climb to a place where Tallebudgera Falls are probably flowing again behind some newly planted trees. Still, the views over the valley are worth the effort, even if the falls can't be seen anymore.

And so on to Sunday, and this time I joined my old riding partner Martin for a fairly routine ride to the hamlet of Duranbah, on the Condong Range, basically to see what was there. The promised rain never quite eventuated (somehow we missed it for the entire day), but there were other charms, particularly the early morning light on the South Pacific Ocean. The ride opened with the obligatory ride through the forests of Urliup, and some relief from the heat prior to the arrival of the forecast southerly change.


The change in weather arrived as we crested the Condong Range at Farrants Hill, before a delightful ride across to Duranbah. In the nature reserve there are some old fire roads which, while rough, may provide some interesting riding experiences in the future. Even though I was riding The Black Magic on it's biggest outing in over two years, time constraints prevented a full exploration of the area. The most likely destination of these tracks is Cabarita Beach or the area immediately north of it. We ended up catching a ride home on a southerly wind, with time to speculate on just where they might lead. One day...

Didn't feel like it

Yesterday just seemed second-rate in so many ways. I'm guessing it's probably a function of the seemingly endless summer -- almost six months in and another three weeks (at least) to endure. I got up feeling lethargic, and decided to ride anyway. I'd been planning a ride in the Tweed Valley, but just didn't feel like it. I decided to head west and hopefully escape the coastal humidity. For once it didn't work.
Near Canungra I decided on a climb of Mt Tamborine, only to find the last kilometre of the road was closed for some construction work was started over six months ago. After that I decided to hell with trying to find anywhere else to ride. I had just had enough of the heat, enough of trying to find water every 40km, enough of dealing with Queensland's notoriously aggressive drivers. I just wanted out. I spent most of the afternoon surfing the Internet in front of a fan and wishing I could cool down somehow.
Some cycle-therapy on the commute today seems to have settled things down a little. Lane-splitting at 40km/h tends to do that. The ride home was an interesting one. In typical Chris L fasion it involved me having to detour to a surgery to have two stitches removed after an operation 10 days ago, then detour again to buy some groceries. Of course I walked into the store like a lycra-clad superman, and ended up being asked about various cycling clubs by an attendant who had just taken up road cycling. I did throw in a mention of Audax of course, but I think she was looking for something a little easier to start with. It's amazing who you meet when dressed like superman.

Erupting Aurora over Devil Fish Lake

This was the first "good" shot that I made of the Aurora on July 15, . This moment occurred at just after midnight after we had already been watching the sky for about two hours. My friends were starting to think that maybe we weren't going to see a sky full of active lights that night, they thought that maybe a faint glow was all we were going to get. I told them to be patient, it's not even midnight yet. Sure enough, just after midnight the sky erupted with lights. Once you've seen how quickly the aurora can erupt and fill the sky, it's a vision that never leaves your mind. It is a phenomena that makes you feel both insignificant in the universe and grand all at the same time. On the one hand you feel incredibly tiny, realizing that the source of these lights came all the way from the sun. On the other hand, when the lights are this active they seem so low in the sky that you can almost touch them... in a way almost touching the sun itself. Any way you look at it or ponder it, it certainly is one of nature's most breathtaking sights!

Mt Nimmel and the nine-year itch

"Nimmel" is an aboriginal word meaning "Conspicuous mountain". It's actually ironic that Mt Nimmel should have ended up with such a name. For one thing, at a mere 489 metres in height, it's quite a bit smaller than the surrounding peaks of Springbrook, The Cougals, Mt Gannon, Mt Tallebudgera etc. In my case, I've only managed to get around to riding up it after climbing any number of other mountains in any number of other parts of the country (and in New Zealand for that matter).
It truth, I did attempt this mountain nine years ago, and failed dismally. I later found out that mechanical problems on my bike that day inhibited me considerably. I would discover today that the early kick which beat me in 1998 is actually the hardest part of the entire climb. Shortly after this early kick, the gradients levelled out a little as they often do. This time it settled into a pattern of short, steep ups and downs, each gradually gaining in height. The views were telling their own story.

I watched a line of cloud moving across from the coast, and wondered if I'd be caught in the rain on the descent. As it was, the climb was too pretty to worry about those things. After a consistent grind through some eucalypt forest, the vegetation opened up as the gradient got steeper for the final assault. I then realised that I'd managed to hit a patch of greenery that I had thought was actually on Springbrook when looking at the mountains from the coast.

Some short steep sections followed, but the summit was something of an anti-climax in the end. I reached it, and the end of the road before turning around and descending quickly. There is some debate about the pros and cons of whether or not cyclists should wear underwear. All I'll say is that some brown underpants have a use of their own on this descent.

I found a dirt track, leading off to the East before I reached the bottom. I was tempted to follow it, thinking it might be the "missing link" between Mt Nimmel and Austinville that I've read about on some maps (but not others). It's ironic that I chose not to follow it on this day, because I ended up detouring to Austinville later anyway. I felt I needed some extra kilometres, and the rainforest at Austinville would provide the ideal setting.


My thighs had some arguments on the dirt sections, but that didn't really last long. I coasted home fairly easily after this, wondering if there were any more riding possibilities in this area. The possibility of a back track linking Mt Nimmel and Austinville is an interesting one. It's something I'll have to explore further on the next opportunity, which could be at least a month away.